DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 321 



lour; and the Coccus Uva-ursi, which with alum affords 

 a crimson dye '. 



Cochineal, the Coccus Cacti, is doubtless the most va- 

 luable product for which the dyer is indebted to insects? 

 and with the exception perhaps of indigo the most im- 

 portant of dyeing materials. Though the Spaniards 

 found it employed by the natives of Mexico, where alone 

 it is cultivated, on their arrival in that country in 1518, 

 its true nature was not accurately ascertained for nearly 

 two centui'ies afterwards. Acosta indeed as early as 1530, 

 and Herrara and Hernandez subsequently, had stated 

 it to be an insect. But led apparently by its external 

 appearance, notwithstanding the conjectures of Lister 

 and assertions of Pere Plumier to the contrary, it was 

 believed by Europeans in general to be the seed of a 

 plant, until Hartsoeker in 1694, Leeuw^enhoek and De 

 la Hire in 1704, and Geoifroy, ten years later, by dis- 

 sections and microscopical observations incontrovertibly 

 proved its real origin^. 



This insect, which comes to us in the form of a red- 

 dish shrivelled grain covered with a white powder or 

 bloom, feeds on a particular kind of Indian fig, called in 

 Mexico, where alone cochineal is produced in any quan- 

 tity. Nopal, which has always been supposed to be the 

 Cactus cochinilifer, but according to Humboldt is un- 

 questionably a distinct species, which bears fruit inter- 

 nally white. 



Cochineal is chiefly cultivated in the Intendency of 

 Oaxaca ; and some plantations contain 50 or 60,000 no- 

 pals in lines, each being kept about four feet high for 

 more easy access in collecting the dye. The cultivators 



" Bancroft, i. 401. " Bancroft, i. 413. Reaum. iv. 88. 



VOL. I. Y 



